It's pretty cold today and I was thinking of putting some cat food out to see if the Starlings come, when I spot a couple of Grackles on my front lawn. I get closer to the living room window and see another 200 more all over the front lawn covering about a 35-40yd stretch!
I go to the side of the house and slide a window up. Man that screeching noise from 200-300 of these birds was so loud, it was almost unbearable. I figured they will eventually come this way. As soon as I opened the window I see a few fly away that were on the ground on my left near the garage in the driveway. They gave the alarm and the Grackles in the front took to the trees. When they did that about a dozen flew to the tall Spruce right in front of me about 12-13yds out. I backed away from the window about 6-7ft into the room and was trying to pick one out but the pine needles gave them great cover. Finally I spotted some "black" through all the branches about 20-25ft up and got to my keens and took the shot with the 850 .22. The CPHP found its mark and I saw the bird fall only for a sec. and then lost it in the thick brush.
Now I hear them in the back of the house. I relocate to the porch where I had left a window open with the bamboo blind down. I see about a dozen of them on 3 or 4 different trees and picked out a big one that was behind only 1 little branch. The rest of them had more cover. Its head, neck and most of the chest were kind of blocked by the branch but I had a good view of most of its belly. I adjusted the A/O to about 25yds and slowly pushed the blind aside with the 850's barrel. The blind will move horizontaly for about 1-1.5". That was enough for me to see the Grackle through the scope. He looked ready to take off so I squeezed and the CPHP found its target. It dropped dead from 35ft up and never moved. The rest of them now headed for the hills and I could no longer hear them.
After a good 2-3min. of searching I spotted the first one on the ground right next to the trunk of the Spruce about 12ft in from the outter branches. I could not get in there to retreat it. The brush was too thick. He 'll become dinner to the night critters. I am going to cut all those branches at the bottom this Spring. This tree needs a good pruning. It has become too messy and the branches are now covering too much of the grass which eventually dies with no sun. I took a couple of pics of the 2nd big male and then started doing some spring cleaning. I picked up at least a couple of hundred branches so now I am tired and breaking for lunch
